


Whitening Strips

by spicygenou



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-16
Updated: 2017-03-16
Packaged: 2018-10-06 01:34:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10322495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spicygenou/pseuds/spicygenou
Summary: Just a fluffy klance college au with keith and lance as emotionally-constipated friends-with-benefits who start to reevaluate their relationship. Classic... perhaps cliche? Either way, it's just a cute little drabble.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Ooh, this is my first ao3 post, and my first little drabble for this fandom! Hope you enjoy the fluff! :)

- **You up?**  
2:36am

Keith glared at his phone, cursing the screen for daring to light up. He was trying to sleep, dammit! Reaching out, he snatched it off its charger, praying there wasn’t some emergency. He rolled his eyes. A text from Lance? Far from an emergency, especially given the hour. He locked his phone, intent on ignoring the other man and feigning sleep, but another text stopped him.

- **Keeeiiiiitttthththththhhh!!**  
2:37 am

- **come over**  
2:37am

- **I wanna cuddle**  
2:37am

He groaned. He was hardly in the mood for hooking up; he had class in the morning and was hoping to get some rest.

- **:(**  
2:38am

- **I know ur awake, u don’t sleep till 4 usually**  
2:38am

He typed out a response.

- _I was trying to be a responsible adult for once.  
2:38am_

- **Keithy! :d**  
2:38am

- ***:D**  
2:38am

 _-Are you drunk? It’s Tuesday night. Well, Wednesday now.  
_ 2:39am

- **I may have partaken in a bottle of delicious pinot grigio B)**  
2:39am

- **Hunk and I tried to go to the movies**  
2:39am

- **bit they were sold out : <**  
2:39am

- **so we went to his apt and watched movies n drank wine : >**  
2:39am

 _-couldn’t you have cuddled with Hunk?_  
2:39am

- **:(**  
2:40am

- **:’’’’’((((((**  
2:40am

- **his gf came over, I had to skedaddle**  
2:40am

- _who the hell says ‘skedaddle’_?  
2:40am

- **can you do me a favor?**  
2:40am

- _?_  
2:40am

- **SHUT THE DUCK UP**  
2:40am

- ***FUCK**  
2:40am

- **QUACK QUACK BITCH**  
2:40am

He snorted to himself. Lance alone was—though he’d never admit it aloud—entertaining; drunk Lance, even more so. He turned to his bedside clock to affirm the late hour. It read 1:41am; he’d forgotten about Daylight Savings.

With a sigh, directed both at Lance for his behavior and at himself for falling prey to it every time, he rolled out of bed. After setting his clock at the right hour, he left his room.

His roommate, Pidge, was in the common room, tapping away at her laptop while a silent episode of _Futurama_ played on the TV.

“Where you going?” she asked.

“Out,” Keith responded cryptically.

“At this hour?” she frowned. Then, her eyes lit up. “Let me guess, going to see lover boy?”

“He’s not my lover,” he glared.

“So it is him, then?”

“Beside the point. How’d you guess?”

“Saw Hunk’s snapchat story; Lance and alcohol were involved, and those usually are followed by a booty call.”

“Whatever,” was his smart retort.

Pidge snickered. “Use protection!”

Keith decided not to engage in any more verbal bickering, and so left with a quick wave of his hand.

Thankfully, Lance’s apartment wasn’t too far from Keith and Pidge’s own complex. There were a cluster of student housing options on that block, logical given its prime location near their campus. He entered the code for Lance’s building and walked up the familiar stairs—usually, drunk Keith would struggle with them, but sober Keith was up to the challenge.

He knocked, being sure to keep it quiet enough so as not to disturb Lance’s roommate. He had no need to worry, apparently, as Nyma’s voice called out from the other side.

“It’s unlocked!” she declared.

Keith pressed on, entering the cozy home and closing the door behind him. The smell of weed immediately invaded his senses, with the smoker of said weed smiling at him through a slight haze.

“Hey,” Nyma said. “What brings you here?”

“Lance,” he answered simply. He wasn’t really friends with Nyma, though he hardly considered her an enemy, either. When he’d first met her and Lance, he’d thought they were dating, especially with how frequently Lance would flirt with her. He may have harbored some resentment for her, then, even after finding out that she was extremely uninterested in romance; plus, he felt like they only ever saw each other when Keith was stumbling home with Lance before proceeding to be loud for an hour in the wee hours of the night—he figured she hated him.

But, her smile seemed to hint otherwise. Keith, however, hardly noticed, as he wasn’t the most adept at perceiving social cues, especially from people he wasn’t close to. So, without another word, he bypassed the kitchenette and living room, going down the short hall to Lance’s room.

He knocked again, though he figured Lance had probably already heard him.

“Come in!” Lance sang.

Keith obeyed. The room was unbearably warm, he noted with a grimace. He wasn’t sure how he’d be able to sleep comfortably.

“Jesus, it’s like a sauna,” he groaned.

“Sorry, babe. Must be me,” Lance winked.

“Lame.”

“Rude!”

“Scoot over,” Keith ordered.

Lance shuffled his blanket cocoon to one side of the bed. Keith took his usual spot nearest to the door. He kicked off his shoes and started to pull off his shirt when Lance laughed.

“Keith, what do you take me for? I _did_ say we were just gonna cuddle. Oh, did you get my text?”

“I haven’t looked at my phone since I left my house,” he confessed.

Lance whined. “Ugh, I need water. You know how I am with wine hangovers!”

“Unfortunately, I do. Fine, one sec.” He stood, brushing off Lance’s melodramatic cheering with an eye-roll.

Back in the common space, he remembered that he was shirtless; but, he had a distinct—er, or rather non-distinct—memory (non-memory?) of Nyma walking in on him and Lance completely naked once… or twice… so he didn’t pay his partial nudity any mind.

He selected a large, plastic cup with their school’s logo on it, filling it with cool water from the sink. Then, remembering that Lance was a total diva, he dumped it out and checked the fridge. Sure enough, there were a few bottles of Fiji water as well as a water pitcher. Since he’d gone through the trouble of getting the damn cup, he was going to use it, and so he filled the cup using about half of the filtered water. He refilled the top, receiving an appreciative smile from Nyma for his actions.

A quick glance in the freezer for ice cubes revealed none, so he made his way back to Lance with a relatively refreshing glass of water.

He flipped on Lance’s lightswitch, regretting it immediately.

“What the hell are you wearing?” he asked, too shocked to even laugh.

Sitting and reaching for his water, Lance hardly seemed embarrassed. “What? It’s a mud mask. You know my flawless skin requires a very precise daily regimen!”

“And the hat?”

“I’m deep conditioning,” he pouted. “Not all of us wake up looking flawless with stupid mullets, you know.”

“So you actually do just wanna cuddle,” he seemed shocked.

“That’s what I said!”

“Huh,” he replied. “Can I open the window? I’m dying.”

Lance waved his hand. “Fine, fine. I’ll just freeze in the middle of the night.”

“Don’t be so dramatic.” He leant over Lance’s desk and undid the window latches. With a bit of effort, he managed to pry it open a few inches. The rush of cool nighttime air soothed him instantly.

Lance finished off his water with a loud smack of his lips. “Good shit, thanks.”

Keith responded with a grunt. He climbed over Lance back to his spot. He supposed he could be down with some cuddling if it meant he actually got to sleep.

Lance’s lanky arms were quick to find their prey, latching onto him without mercy.

“How the hell are you so warm?” Lance whined.

“Jesus, you’re freezing!” Keith tried to squirm away. Though he was stronger, Lance had a size advantage, and he had an iron grip besides. His legs were next to join the attack, icy toes creeping up Keith’s leg. He jolted back, nearing the edge of the bed and almost falling off. Lance only laughed at his struggles to maintain his balance.

Eventually they settled into a comfortable enough position with a more preferred percentage of skin-to-skin contact. It was… nice, in a word. Different, of course. They weren’t much on cuddling after their trysts, so despite how intimately they knew each other’s bodies, in this context, they were both rather clueless. Lance’s bumbling was made more obvious due to his inebriation, so Keith hoped his own awkwardness wasn’t as noticeable.

Lance’s lips eventually found their way to Keith’s which, while unexpected, was far from unwelcome. They made out lazily till Keith pulled back, his tongue feeling weird.

“What’s on your teeth?”

“Hm?” Lance hummed.

“Feels funny.”

“Oh yeah!” he laughed. “Oops, I’ve got whitening strips on!”

Keith scraped at his tongue with his teeth in an attempt to rid himself of the grimy feeling. “Are you supposed to sleep in those?”

Lance shrugged. “I think I’ll be fine. My smile will be more radiant than ever!”

“Well, don’t kiss me with them, you weirdo.”

He smirked against Keith’s collar. “’Weirdo’? How you wound me with your grade-school insults.”

“Shut up.”

“What are you doing tomorrow?”

“Class, then work.”

“Boring.”

“It’s life. Why?”

“I wanted to go to the movies. Like I said, the one Hunk and I went to was sold out, so I still need to go.”

“Ah.”

“And I wanted to go with you.”

“Oh.”

“Like on a date.”

“A date date?”

“Obviously.”

“Oh.”

Lance frowned. “Remind me sometime to illustrate a graph of my confidence over time. Let me just spoil it by saying it’s decaying exponentially right now.”

“Is that why you wanted me to come over?”

“Well, I also wanted to cuddle someone, and you were a pretty good candidate.”

“Thanks.”

“Plus the only candidate.”

“Is that an insult or a compliment?”

“Maybe this was a bad idea.”

“Sorry, I’m just confused. I thought you wanted us to be casual. Just, friends with benefits, or whatever.” He remembered the conversation well, as it had crushed his harbored crush into bits; Lance had claimed to dislike labels, which Pidge later translated—rather crudely—as “he wants to ho around”.

“Well,” he mumbled. “I changed my mind.”

“I see.”

Lance turned, putting some distance between them. “Well, don’t mind my drunk words, I’ll just go to bed, goodnight!”

Keith sighed. Reaching out, he pulled Lance close against his chest, his arm locked securely around his slim waist. “I can’t go tomorrow, but I can do the next day, if you want.”

Lance’s face twisted around, a smile—indeed, very white—taking up a majority of Keith’s field of vision. Had Lance not been wearing a facemask, he would’ve seen his pretty blush that wasn’t due to the wine.

“It’s a date, then.”

Keith pressed a quick kiss to Lance’s lips, taking care not to bump his mask. Unfortunately, Lance’s sentimental side kicked in, and they fell asleep facing each other, foreheads pressed together. Keith awoke with blue gunk dried to his forehead and a screeching Lance blaming him for a barely noticeable pimple just below his hairline. Despite the rude awakening, Keith only pulled Lance closer, his sleepiness overcoming any timidity.

“Morning,” he said, voice deeper than usual.

“Morning,” Lance repeated. “Don’t you have class to get to?” Keith checked the clock on the desk, 8:13am. He had plenty of time.

“Oh, I forgot to set that clock forward!” Lance said. “Well, my first class isn’t till noon, anway.”

“Wait, it’s 9:13?”

“Yup.”

“Fuck!”

“You gonna be late?”

“Probably.”

“Just skip, spend the morning with me, instead,” Lance waggled his eyebrows.

“Can’t. Mandatory attendance,” he sprung out of bed, practically jumping into his shoes.

“Lame,” Lance fell back with a huff.

“Next time,” Keith promised.

“I’ll hold you to it,” he grinned.

After throwing on his shirt and jacket, he placed a swift kiss to Lance’s lips, parting in a very domestic manner. Again… nice, but different. He could get used to it.

He arrived a few minutes late to class, forehead red from rubbing, clad in his pajamas which were thankfully just sweats and a plain t-shirt, and hair more askew than usual. He took his seat next to Pidge and dutifully opened his notebook.

He chose not to turn and meet Pidge’s knowing smirk so instead split his attention between the professor and his phone. Lance had followed his example and chose to start the day instead of sleep in till his class, and he made sure to update Keith on his riveting workout while also confirming their future plans.

Keith left the class not having remembered much of the lecture, too busy smiling at his texts.

“You look like a hot mess,” Pidge noted. “But, emphasis on the ‘hot’.”

“Thank you?”

“Anything interesting happen that I should know about? You’re smiling like an idiot.”

“Ah, nothing, really. Just changing up my beauty regimen, you know.”

“Jeez, you sound just like him!” she laughed. “You’re not a big fan of change,” she noted.

He shrugged. “Some things are worth it, I think.”

She rolled her eyes. “Don’t be so cheesy just ‘cause you’re getting laid. Now, come on, Hunk got his hands on an exam from last year—we need to meet him at the library!”

“Gimme a sec,” he said, scrolling through another long-winded and silly text from Lance.

“Lance is with him,” she taunted.

That got his attention well enough, and he nearly dragged Pidge to the library, his roommate teasing him all the way.

He didn’t mind it, however; this time, change truly was good.

 


End file.
